Queensberry Ruleshttp://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules
A Boxing BlogFri, 10 Aug 2018 18:55:52 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8The Liver Punch: Content Quotashttp://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/the-liver-punch-content-quotas.html
http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/the-liver-punch-content-quotas.html#respondFri, 10 Aug 2018 18:04:52 +0000http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/?p=11722It’s an unwritten rule in life that after anything unexpected happens, many of those who viewed it will spend an inordinate amount of time on the autopsy. They will generally be looking for those little nuggets of information that went unseen. Because if they’d had all the facts, they never would’ve been surprised. This is […]

]]>It’s an unwritten rule in life that after anything unexpected happens, many of those who viewed it will spend an inordinate amount of time on the autopsy. They will generally be looking for those little nuggets of information that went unseen. Because if they’d had all the facts, they never would’ve been surprised. This is particularly loathsome in boxing, because, in case you were not aware, everyone is a trained psychologist with penetrating insights that would make Jung, Skinner, and their ilk renounce any knowledge of the field. Following that are the interviews of former managers, trainers, dog walkers, and anyone else with whom the losing fighter has fallen out over the years. All of this, every last bit, is an attempt to know WHY it happened.

Last weekend, Sergey Kovalev lost to underdog Eleider Alavarez. HOW he lost should’ve rendered any further discussion superfluous, because Kovalev got knocked the fuck out. He was ahead in the fight, then pulled straight back with his hands low (as he has done his whole damn career) and an excellent counterpuncher whose record belies his actual power surged forward at the exact right moment and detonated a brutal overhand right on Kovalev’s temple. Kovalev’s legs turned into stilts on ice and he skittered backward before landing on his ass. Clearly hurt, the Russian got up and didn’t clinch or run. For that lapse in judgement, Alvarez punished him with a left hook/uppercut that collapsed Kovalev into a heap, his left arm folded under and behind him in the fashion that only yoga hippies and people who’ve just had their entire nervous system scrambled can manage. The fight could’ve and likely should’ve been stopped, but up he rose only to get dropped again and the fight waived off.

Do you want to know why Kovalev lost, really lost? Eleider Alvarez was better and took advantage of a perfect opening. Don’t believe me?

Maybe Kovalev is lazy, ungrateful, and a racist, as former trainer John David Jackson claimed this week. Maybe he is a front running bully who couldn’t mentally process his first loss and is now a broken husk of a man and it showed up again last weekend as innumerable people have claimed.

Probably though, he’s a very good light heavyweight who is slipping slightly at age 35 and has now lost to two fighters who could withstand his offense and then return with their own. It’s worth noting that both Andre Ward and Eleider Alvarez had to brutalize him to get him out. And in case you’ve forgotten, after dropping Kovalev with a filthy overhand right as he pulled back with his hands low (I see a trend), Andre Ward hit Kovalev with one of the most psychotically evil body shots I’ve ever seen.

I’m not saying that people shouldn’t hypothesize or discuss. But fighters have a short prime and if 90% of the post fight conversation is a conspiracy theory level dive down the rabbit hole of the loser’s pysche and relationships instead of celebrating the winner, we’re missing the fucking point.

Delirium Tremens

If you’re asking me to believe that Sergio Martinez is seriously training for a comeback based entirely on a hypothetical statement he made during an interview with someone else, you’re gonna have to try harder. I know we all loved Zoolander, but ask any washed athlete who still enjoys their sport if they think about coming back, they’ll pretty much all at least entertain it as a thought experiment. The Martinez who lost to Cotto couldn’t make it through a full camp, let alone a fight. And he’s four years older now.

I really want to like Dmitry Bivol but he’s not moving the needle for me at all. I know Isaac Chilemba is damn near impossible to look good against, but every time I see the Russian fight I’m bored.

Why is BJ Flores still a thing?

There are a lot of really fun fights to be made at heavyweight. The verbal sparring matches are not among them. I’ve never given the slightest fuck what Deontay Wilder says and I’m even less interested in Dominic Breazeale’s response.

]]>As doubleheader cards teeing up the expected winners to face one another go, Saturday night was a disaster. As gobsmacking, can’t-believe-your-eyes upsets go, well, one out of two ain’t bad.

Long-languishing light heavyweight Eleider Alvarez, put in the ring on HBO as an authentic test for longtime boogeyman Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev, notched the upset with a violent three-knockdown 7th round that demolished the power-punching bully. The undercard was far less interesting, as would-be Kovalev opponent Dmitry Bivol had to deal with Living Piece Of Gum Stuck In Your Teeth Isaac Chilemba en route to a clear decision win that didn’t glamorize anyone.

But man, Alvarez! Didja see? Didja? He started in a way that suggested trouble for Kovalev, firing body punches the way the first man to truly vanquish Kovalev — Andre Ward — did. His solid boxing fundamentals surely had Kovalev thinking he was haunted by Ward’s poltergeist.

But Kovalev collected himself and started throwing mean punches, seemingly taking over in the middle rounds with volume. At one point Alvarez tried to trade, and all he got out of it was bloodied. So it was more than a little surprising in multiple dimensions — that the not-too-powerful Alvarez scored a knockdown, that the usually sturdy Kovalev was on the ground at all, and that Kovalev looked so rattled it was immediately doubtful if he’d make it out of the round — when Alvarez landed a huge overhead right that melted Kovalev’s jowls.

And yeah, that’s where it went. Two more left-right combos ended Kovalev’s night, as he wasn’t capable of or willing to tie up or move around or otherwise buy time to gather the wits he left spilled all over the ring.

This was a dangerous matchmaking decision, albeit a worthy one for viewers. It promised to answer the questions about whether the Kovalev in against relatively easy foes since his losses to Ward, against opponents who wouldn’t pose similar troubles Ward did, was for real. The answer strongly appears to be, “No.” You have to guess Main Events, Kovalev’s promoters, knew Kovalev might be a bit of an illusion at age 35, and was hoping he’d overcome this highly credible test en route to a potential last big cash fight against Bivol, win or lose.

Still, Kovalev at least behaved like a real fighter by taking on Alvarez, since the light heavyweight champion, Adonis Stevenson, has behaved like anything but. After all, Alvarez was amid a 13-month layoff because Stevenson hasn’t faced him despite being Alvarez his mandatory challenger for some sanctioning organization or another — starting back in 2015 (!) — a reminder that, when convenient for the wallets of the powerful, nobody is really forced to do anything by these fraudulent outfits.

This writer didn’t catch the whole Bivol-Chilemba fight, but that matchmaking was worse, despite being defensible on a competitive level, because there was no way a spoiler like Chilemba was going to build any interest in Bivol’s next fight, especially because Bivol is a conservative technician first who scores knockouts second. If Chilemba wasn’t going to be willing, and when is he?, Bivol wasn’t going to get to show off much.

Nonetheless, promotional turf wars (ah, it’s so nice we never have to worry about THOSE) might make Alvarez-Bivol about as good as it gets for either man. In that sense, along with the others, this card was all over the place. Some good, some bad, conceptually and actually, not ending as anyone intended but ending up in a pretty decent place anyhow.

]]>http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/eleider-alvarez-shocks-krushes-sergey-kovalev.html/feed02018-08-04T23:10:25+00:002018-08-04T23:10:25+00:00alvarez-kovalev1Mikey Garcia Warms Up, Decisions Robert Easterhttp://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/mikey-garcia-warms-up-decisions-robert-easter.html
http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/mikey-garcia-warms-up-decisions-robert-easter.html#respondSun, 29 Jul 2018 05:04:49 +0000http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/?p=11699For just a little while — about two and a half rounds, let’s say — it looked like Robert Easter might give Mikey Garcia some trouble all Saturday night long. But a Garcia knockdown in the 3rd, and a thorough takeover by midfight, reminded us yet that Garcia is an outstanding fighter. It was a […]

]]>For just a little while — about two and a half rounds, let’s say — it looked like Robert Easter might give Mikey Garcia some trouble all Saturday night long. But a Garcia knockdown in the 3rd, and a thorough takeover by midfight, reminded us yet that Garcia is an outstanding fighter.

It was a nice bit of lightweight matchmaking on Showtime, and it played out interestingly. Easter gave Garcia some trouble with his length, superior athleticism and game plan, which was to establish an uncomfortable distance for Garcia and make the natural counterpuncher give chase.

But after a right hand/left hook combo that dropped Easter, it was clear Garcia’s excellent boxing brain had figured something out. He had to work his jab, not normally one of his go-to punches, and Easter didn’t disappear after that knockdown: He might have won as many as two more.

For some reason, though, he game plan fell apart and he started, weirdly, just running in circles in the 8th. He then made a foolish decision to trade with Garcia in the 9th, and while it made the fight fun for a while, Easter didn’t get the better of it. After that, he wasn’t competitive again.

Granted, Easter wasn’t likely to win a fight where he was just more active and not landing the showier punches, but it was disappointing to see such a promising effort go sideways.

Garcia said afterward he wants to move up to welterweight to challenge fellow sensation Errol Spence. It’s an intriguing idea, even if a Vasyl Lomachenko bout is more desirable, and even if it’s hard to imagine Garcia, who started at featherweight, having enough power (it’s already evaporated some as he’s moved to lightweight, and wasn’t much in evidence when he moved up to junior welterweight) to challenge at 147. But we ought to know by now not to underestimate Mikey Garcia.

]]>http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/mikey-garcia-warms-up-decisions-robert-easter.html/feed02018-07-29T00:04:49+00:002018-07-29T00:04:49+00:00garviavseaster1Manny Pacquiao Dominates Lucas Matthysse For First KO In Nearly A Decadehttp://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/manny-pacquiao-dominates-lucas-matthysse-for-first-ko-in-nearly-a-decade.html
http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/manny-pacquiao-dominates-lucas-matthysse-for-first-ko-in-nearly-a-decade.html#respondSun, 15 Jul 2018 04:28:10 +0000http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/?p=11681This Manny Pacquiao, on this Saturday night, was not the Manny Pacquiao we saw last time he was in the ring more than a year ago. Nor was Lucas Matthysse the same kind of opponent as the last man Pacquiao faced. Nonetheless, those of us expecting an even further diminished Pacquiao — an older one, […]

]]>This Manny Pacquiao, on this Saturday night, was not the Manny Pacquiao we saw last time he was in the ring more than a year ago. Nor was Lucas Matthysse the same kind of opponent as the last man Pacquiao faced. Nonetheless, those of us expecting an even further diminished Pacquiao — an older one, no longer training with his Svengali Freddie Roach, one in severe danger of losing — were way, way off.

On ESPN+, Pacquiao absolutely throttled Matthysse, knocking him down three times before forcing Matthysse to remain on a knee and spit out his mouthpiece in the 7th.

At 39, Pacquiao didn’t look slower or sloppier from ring rust or trainer switches. He came out fast, throwing quick combos and demonstrating footwork that at least echoed the Pacquiao of long ago.

Now, Matthysse had something to do with that. Matthysse was never quick of hand or foot nor exceptionally skilled, and he didn’t pose any particular size obstacle as a guy who’s more of a natural junior welterweight. Jeff Horn, the man who didn’t deserve his win over Pacquiao last year, nonetheless gave Pac more trouble than Matthysse, thanks to being young, technically astute and physically larger (although the final reason got too much chatter; Pacquiao faced Margarito, who outweighed him by nearly 20 pounds, and had far less trouble than he did with Horn [admittedly one of the differences was age, but that goes to the earlier points, doesn’t it?]).

Matthysse, by contrast with Pacquiao, looked like he had even less in his tank, and also slow and ragged. He only landed a handful of punches worth mentioning. No, wait. On second thought, let’s not even mention them. His vaunted power didn’t get to come into play because he didn’t really connect on much of anything.

In the meantime, Pacquiao peppered the hell out of him with quick shots, not looking like the guy last year who was in poor shape, trying to conserve energy, disinterested, or all of the above, which helped swing the bad decision to Horn.

An uppercut in the 3rd stunned and dropped Matthysse. Pacquiao, who hadn’t scored a knockout since 2009, didn’t really try to finish him. A 5th round shot on the temple for some reason made Matthysse take a knee. When he took a knee in the 7th, it was clear he didn’t want anymore.

Pacquiao will get the choice of opponents he wants next time out, and despite his improved showing Saturday, they’ll want him right back, because he still has a name and can generate a paycheck.

We must close on a sour note. The ESPN+ gambit generated plenty of grousing on Twitter from fans, as it should have. The production values were poor. The outlet isn’t widespread enough such that you can watch it on your TV without some jury-rigging or set-ups that not everyone has.

Furthermore, and perhaps the ESPN-Top Rank deal that many vaunted as some kind of revolution has of late begun to feel like more of the same: pay to play. Some of the biggest stars that Top Rank has to offer have appeared on ESPN proper, like Terence Crawford and Pacquiao. But both those men — and, for what it’s worth, Horn — have had their last fight on a crappy app that requires a $4.99 a month subscription.

Now, it’s not like there wasn’t a “yeah but you’ll have to pay” caveat that we got when this deal was signed. But if the best fights and biggest names are going to migrate to pay TV, then how much of a difference is this truly making?

It should be clear after Saturday that this deal is not the deal that’s going to “save” boxing. I’m not sure what percentage of fights on ESPN vs the paid app will make it so this is significantly better than subscribing to HBO and Showtime, and how much more the audience on ESPN+ will shrink if x percentage of the best fights migrate from “free” ESPN (scare quotes since cable itself ain’t free).

It’s almost like there’s a certain segment of boxing fans and boxing media who are either totally gullible, or else part of that alien mindset that Scotch-taping one’s allegiance to a specific promoter — as opposed to a specific fighter, or good fights, or just the sport itself — is somehow worthwhile or valid. And while Top Rank does plenty of good things as a promoter, well, it ain’t no panacea, or it probably wouldn’t be the longest-reigning promoter during the sport’s decline from its heyday.

]]>http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/manny-pacquiao-dominates-lucas-matthysse-for-first-ko-in-nearly-a-decade.html/feed02018-07-14T23:28:10+00:002018-07-14T23:46:09+00:00pac1-720×8361Is this Nuttal’s Number Ten? Manny Pacquiao Vs Lucas Matthysse Preview And Predictionhttp://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/is-this-nuttals-number-ten-manny-pacquiao-vs-lucas-matthysse-preview-and-prediction.html
http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/is-this-nuttals-number-ten-manny-pacquiao-vs-lucas-matthysse-preview-and-prediction.html#respondFri, 13 Jul 2018 18:11:21 +0000http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/?p=11652There is a certain reverence that we pay to the greats. It often lasts far beyond their usefulness. It ignores or exaggerates their faults and their inevitable decline because we need to believe in greatness for our own sake. People who are otherwise ordinary will have their every action and opinion somehow treated as important […]

]]>There is a certain reverence that we pay to the greats. It often lasts far beyond their usefulness. It ignores or exaggerates their faults and their inevitable decline because we need to believe in greatness for our own sake. People who are otherwise ordinary will have their every action and opinion somehow treated as important because they have excelled in one thing. Icons are subjected to hagiography and hatchet jobs while they are still alive. Where some can only see what existed at its zenith, others take the inevitable toll of time as proof that they were never much to begin with. Seldom do we have the compassion to treat them as the people they are in that moment.

At 39 years old, Manny Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KO) is a full time senator in the Philippines, and a part time fighter. And after an incomprehensibly long run as one of the very best fighters in the sport, he has become an ordinary welterweight. The fighter who lost an atrocious decision to Jeff Horn last year is pretty good, but nothing special. The fighter who enters the ring Saturday night (Sunday morning local) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia against Lucas Matthysse may be more faded still. As evidence of Pacquiao’s physical and financial decline, the bout is under his own promotional banner instead of Top Rank’s, and it’s being aired on the ESPN+ app. A far cry for a man who headlined the largest grossing fight in boxing history just three years ago. And to add insult to injury, Pacquiao’s star has dimmed enough that there has been a noted dearth of think pieces about his “problematic” political views and cozy relationship with batshit crazy Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte in the build up.

This week there has been no shortage of video compilations showing Pacquiao as he was: a grinning human pinball, if that pinball had been filled with high explosives. He was chaos personified, a speed demon of questionable balance that could hit you with either hand so fast that the opponent had no clue where he’d be next, and occasionally it appeared Pacquiao himself was unsure but thrilled to be on the ride.

He’s gone now. Where once was a smiling gunslinger now resides a tired body, playing the hands that have been dealt and hoping for a good run of luck to swell his pockets, trying to be something he knows he can’t, because his gift is gone and he has no others. What he has left is grit and his name. How much use they are in the ring remains to be seen.

Lucas Matthysse (39-4, 36 KO) never became quite what we hoped he would be. Despite a long run at the top of the junior welterweight division, the Argentine was always limited. His power is undeniable, but it is more of the sledgehammer than explosive variety. Throughout his career, he has battered anyone who was not world class, and engaged in some absurd slugfests. However, he has fallen short against the very best opponents he’s faced, including debatable split decision losses to Zab Judah and Devon Alexander, a hotly contested unanimous decision loss to Danny Garcia, and being stopped by Viktor Postol. Of those, only the Postol loss is recent, but it is the most telling. Matthysse’s kryptonite has always been speed and length, which Postol had plenty of, but in that fight, by the later rounds, Matthysse simply looked like he didn’t want to be in the ring anymore. It may have been a hangover from his barbaric war with Ruslan Provodnikov six months earlier, it may have been age, it may have been frustration at eating long-range counterpunches all night, or it may have been all of the above. Whatever the cause, when the moment came, Matthysse decided he’d had enough.

Following his loss to Postol, Matthysse did not fight again for a year and a half. His two bouts since returning have been at welterweight, beating up and then stopping journeyman Emmanuel Taylor and largely unknown Thai Tewa Kiram for the secondary strap of a secondary alphabet organization. It’s the belt he acquired from Kiram that has earned him this payday against Pacquiao.

For many years, this fight would’ve been a mismatch. Matthysse’s power was never enough to overcome his speed and technical deficiencies against a Pacquiao who was anywhere near peak. But Pacquiao isn’t anywhere near peak. Not even in the same region. The question is whether he is so much more faded than Matthysse that they find themselves on equal terms, and I think that is exactly what has happened.

Pacquiao did not retain trainer Freddie Roach for this fight, opting instead to work with long time foot warmer and friend Buboy Fernandez, who is not actually a trainer. It has been a bit of a running joke, and if you’ve watched the videos emanating from their camp, it’s easy to see why. There seems to be no coherent strategy, and Pacquiao has looked slow and flat-footed. Where once he would explode forward with a ballistic 1-2 before spinning to his right and ejecting himself out of range, there are steps and turns. The distances he could erase and create with his speed have halved, and the time necessary to do it has doubled. So too has the shock of his power. He’s not catching anyone off guard anymore, and he’s not too hard to hit. Matthysse is still largely himself. He’s older and slower, but he’s never relied on speed, and he can still punch.

Expect a now fully human Pacquiao to fight much as he did against Horn, circling and firing one punch at a time, with combinations thrown in for seasoning, especially if Matthysse takes a backward step. Matthysse will plod forward behind his jab, looking to land something hurtful, and turn up the heat when Pacquiao backs to the ropes. It’s those times Pacquiao allows himself to be backed against the ropes or into a corner that will decide the fight. That is Matthysse’s preferred offensive location, and his power is at its most damaging when he can come forward as he punches. Pacquiao no longer has the legs or speed to use these locations as a trap, so there won’t be ambushes. Instead, they will have to fight toe to toe, which is when things get fun. Manny Pacquiao may be human finally, but he is still all fighter, and these two should produce some brutal exchanges. The winner will be whoever can convince the other man he can’t win.

Prediction: Matthysse by hard fought decision, with at least one ridiculous card.

(KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYASIA— Manny Pacquiao (l) poses with Lucas Matthysse during a press conference for their fight at Axiata Arena on July 15; Photo by Yam G-Jun/AP)

]]>http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/is-this-nuttals-number-ten-manny-pacquiao-vs-lucas-matthysse-preview-and-prediction.html/feed02018-07-13T13:11:21+00:002018-07-14T11:47:46+00:00960×01Boxing Needs More Josh Taylorshttp://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/boxing-needs-more-josh-taylors.html
http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/boxing-needs-more-josh-taylors.html#respondSat, 23 Jun 2018 23:35:13 +0000http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/?p=11633This evening at the SSE Hydro Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, junior welterweight Josh Taylor signaled his entrance into the ranks of world class fighters in just his 13th professional bout. He did so by winning a (way too goddamn) wide unanimous decision over Ukrainian Viktor Postol by scores of 117-110, 118-110, and 119-108. TQBR was […]

]]>This evening at the SSE Hydro Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, junior welterweight Josh Taylor signaled his entrance into the ranks of world class fighters in just his 13th professional bout. He did so by winning a (way too goddamn) wide unanimous decision over Ukrainian Viktor Postol by scores of 117-110, 118-110, and 119-108. TQBR was not carefully scoring the bout, but 6-6 or 7-5 Taylor in rounds seemed about right. Scorecards aside, it was a wonderfully contested affair with momentum swings, consistent action, and plenty of skill.

Until battering loudmouthed Englishman Ohara Davies into quitting in July of last year, Taylor (13-0, 11 KO) was basically unknown, and given his resume at the time, that’s fair. But since then, Taylor has fought three times against increasingly talented and seasoned opponents and grown with each bout. The idea that 34 year old technician Viktor Postol (29-2, 12 KO), whose sole career loss was to Terence Crawford, might be too much for the precocious Scot was not a crazy one. Postol was, arguably, the best junior welterweight in the world. Taking on a tall, seasoned, nearly unflappable fighter such as Postol in your 13th fight could be called hubris. But it’s only hubris if you fail.

Taylor employs an educated, occasionally frenetic, southpaw attack. Postol was able to adjust and time Taylor, coming on strongly in the middle rounds, stunning Taylor with repeated right hand counters. It appeared, if only briefly, that Taylor might wilt. At the urging of his corner, Taylor doubled down on the pace and ferocity, scoring the fight’s only knockdown toward the end of the 10th round with a thudding overhand left. The 11th and 12th were nip and tuck and butt and clinch, with both fighters scoring plenty and firing their best shots.

Taylor’s team principal Barry McGuigan echoed many observers by acknowledging that the cards were too wide in the post fight interview. He’s not wrong, they were pretty bad, but they should take nothing away from Taylor’s marvelous performance, and Postol’s as well. With the departure of the otherwordly skilled and talented Crawford, and the emergence of Regis Prograis, junior welterweight is again an interesting and exciting division. Postol and Taylor are a match for anyone in the ranks.

Josh Taylor is 27 years old, which is not young, but his development into a world class professional seems to have happened almost overnight. He’s ambitious, wants the best fighters right now, and fights in a dramatic style that keeps fans fully engaged. Boxing needs more of that.

]]>http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/boxing-needs-more-josh-taylors.html/feed02018-06-23T18:35:13+00:002018-06-23T18:35:21+00:00JoshTaylor1The Liver Punch: Gaslightinghttp://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/the-liver-punch-gaslighting.html
http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/the-liver-punch-gaslighting.html#respondWed, 13 Jun 2018 21:40:19 +0000http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/?p=11595Boxing is full of mind games. Many times they are positive and necessary. Think of a trainer subtley tweaking a fighter’s insecurities to motivate them. Many times they are just necessary, as when fighters fuck with each other before a bout. Most of the time, though, they are tedious and obvious, and we as the […]

]]>Boxing is full of mind games. Many times they are positive and necessary. Think of a trainer subtley tweaking a fighter’s insecurities to motivate them. Many times they are just necessary, as when fighters fuck with each other before a bout. Most of the time, though, they are tedious and obvious, and we as the consumers are the ones who become the intended targets.

As I’m sitting here writing, Golden Boy Promotion’s Oscar De La Hoya has just had another “deadline” for the Canelo-Golovkin rematch come and go. He gleefully tweeted the countdown as most of us rolled our eyes and mentally prepared jokes about fishnets and tainted beef. Of course, within minutes major media outlet members were tweeting that a conversation was ongoing, so don’t count it out just yet. There’s too much money to be made after all (Update: They signed for Sept 15). And on and on we go ad nauseum. Just trying to stay informed requires you to deal with a hurricane of bullshit. And none of it matters. Not one goddamn bit of it.

It doesn’t matter any more than the IBF stripping Golovkin of their trinket. But people will argue about it. Endless threads and articles will spew forth about whether Golovkin should’ve kept his strap and fought Billie Joe Saunders for “all the belts.” No doubt we will see articles detailing how unlikely the fight being made really was until, *gasp*, it actually got signed. People will bitch at each other about the purse split, whether the fight is a pay-per-view or not, buy rates. All kinds of meaningless chatter will go on, and some of us will engage for fun, a great many will mean it, and the smartest among us will just roll their eyes.

Because that’s what’s happened to most of the viewership, we have become so starved for the best fights being made that subrate spectacles are treated as colossal fights, wins that are gimmes are debated for historical content and interpersonal squabbles have become news. As Alan Conceição recently said, fans suffer from a form of Stockholm Syndrome. Look around any social media, or just in the actual fucking media, and you’ll see defenses of the most ridiculous bullshit that is at its core a shouting down of what most of us know: Fans are getting anemic offerings that don’t justify our support.

I’m not saying we don’t still see good fights. We do. I’m not saying access is not adequate. It is. I’m not saying that I mind paying for all the new apps and other streaming platforms. I’m happy to drop a few shekels to be able to see the whole fight live at a decent hour.

I’m saying almost none of it matters except the fights, and we don’t get the right ones with enough frequency to justify the language we hear on a regular basis. It’s a never ending commercial designed to make other people money without providing a service that deserves the investment. Boxing has become one never ending promotion and everyone is doing their part. Every stupid quote turned into a news item that generates a page view, or argument about how absurd an announce crew’s hyperbolic language is a distraction from being pissed off that the best fights don’t get made enough.

Somewhere along the way, fans have to wise up to the fact that we are constantly being fed copious servings of bullshit so we don’t bitch about being hungry.

Delirium Tremens

Leo Santa Cruz’s win over Abner Mhares was impressive and fun. And that’s great, but it wasn’t necessary. There are a bunch of compelling fights to make at featherweight and hopefully one will determine who faces Gary Russell Jr. when he next fights in 2020.

I don’t know anyone who thought Jeff Horn could beat Terence Crawford. It’s nice Bud has another title belt, but who cares? He’s so good that fighting anyone but Errol Spence is a complete waste of his time and having a belt at 147 doesn’t make it the slightest bit more interesting.

I thought Badou Jack beat Adoins Stevenson.

Now that David Haye is retired, I’ll have to find a new pretty boy to hope gets wrecked by a fat soccer hooligan. Tragic.

]]>http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/the-liver-punch-gaslighting.html/feed02018-06-13T16:40:19+00:002018-06-13T19:51:45+00:00LiverPunch1Leo Santa Cruz Edges Abner Mares In Action-Packed Rematchhttp://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/leo-santa-cruz-edges-abner-mares-in-action-packed-rematch.html
http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/leo-santa-cruz-edges-abner-mares-in-action-packed-rematch.html#respondSun, 10 Jun 2018 04:57:08 +0000http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/?p=11583Leo Santa Cruz had moved beyond it, this Abner Mares rematch Saturday on Showtime. Mares had done almost nothing to earn the do-over, while Santa Cruz had beaten a better fighter in Carl Frampton. You know what, though? The second time around was arguably better than the first, which ended with the same victor: Santa […]

]]>Leo Santa Cruz had moved beyond it, this Abner Mares rematch Saturday on Showtime. Mares had done almost nothing to earn the do-over, while Santa Cruz had beaten a better fighter in Carl Frampton. You know what, though? The second time around was arguably better than the first, which ended with the same victor: Santa Cruz.

There are few fights with this much action and such little pain. Neither junior lightweight hits terribly hard. They just hit a lot.

The dynamic was thus: Santa Cruz was better at range, Mares was better up close. Mares often landed the harder punches, Santa Cruz the more frequent. Mares favored the body, Santa Cruz the head.

Just when it looked like it might get into a rhythm, with one man’s preferred approach winning out, the other would reestablish himself or take advantage of the other’s needless bloodlust. Not to be ungrateful about the last bit.

The Santa Cruz who looked “beyond” Mares wasn’t around. He showed some ring rust for a fighter who benefits from being in the ring often and lately hasn’t been. Mares’ slippage might have been overrated, too.

The 12th round was the fight in a microcosm: Two guys throwing a gazillion punches and barely doing damage. The only real sign of damage came via a cut over Santa Cruz’s left eye, delivered not by a legal blow but a head butt.

The judges scored it 115-113, 116-112 and 117-111. TQBR scored it 115-113. The 117-111 scorecard seemed wide, but it was a tough bout to score, and if anyone won the closer rounds, it was the busier man, Santa Cruz.

So, do we get a trilogy next or Gary Russell for Santa Cruz? The hyper-athletic Russell looks like he’d fuck up this version of Santa Cruz, who not that long ago went from a one dimensional, volume punching boxer to a complete product. That makes a trilogy fight the vote here. Of course, nothing says they can’t do it again after Santa Cruz vs Russell.

******

On the undercard, Jermell Charlo outclassed an aging Austin Trout, once a 154-pound elite and now more of a gatekeeper. Charlo was too young, too athletic and hit too hard — he scored two knockdowns — for Trout, who had some competitive rounds.

Charlo vs Jarret Hurd next would be spectacular. Charlo probably loaded up too much, as the Showtime team observed, but he’s the better boxer. Hurd is the harder hitter. Both are young and may have upside they haven’t yet achieved, but now is the right time for this one.

]]>http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/leo-santa-cruz-edges-abner-mares-in-action-packed-rematch.html/feed02018-06-09T23:57:08+00:002018-06-09T23:57:08+00:00DfTbF8zUcAA8PP61Let’s Fix Boxing, Shall We?http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/lets-fix-boxing-shall-we.html
http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/lets-fix-boxing-shall-we.html#respondMon, 04 Jun 2018 13:53:11 +0000http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/?p=11570If sports were restaurants, boxing would be the rustic, old steakhouse that hasn’t changed so much as a side dish since prohibition. The kind that bills its own reluctance to adapt to modern ideas as “classic.” Sure, the filet mignon is boiled and there’s rats in the bathroom the size of campground raccoons but hey, […]

]]>If sports were restaurants, boxing would be the rustic, old steakhouse that hasn’t changed so much as a side dish since prohibition. The kind that bills its own reluctance to adapt to modern ideas as “classic.” Sure, the filet mignon is boiled and there’s rats in the bathroom the size of campground raccoons but hey, that’s the way it’s always been! The old guy with the oxygen tank in the coat check room who asked if he could smell your wife’s feet? That’s just Giuseppe! He’s been here since Herbert Hoover was in office.

Our time on this planet is finite and we all waste too much of it honoring pointless traditions simply because that’s the way it’s always been. Next time you’re watching a turkey get pardoned or painting Easter eggs or sitting through church, ask yourself why are we doing this? Why didn’t we bother to come up with anything new along the way? Boxing is no different. Why are rounds three minutes long? Why championship belts instead of hats? Why isn’t there a division for midgets? Because it’s just always been that way.

Boxing is a wonderful sport, right up until the moment that it isn’t. At its best, it’s sublime. At its worst, it’s trite, tedious, and borderline pointless. The incongruity between those two outcomes is almost always due, at least in part, to a blind adherence to outdated rules and senseless protocols that we’ve all just come to accept as the cost of doing business. I mean, we’re sitting here watching two guys legally fistfight with their shirts off so why should any of this make sense, right?

As fans of this god damn sideshow though, we invest time and money in ways other sports fans simply aren’t required to. We pay a hundred bucks plus to watch Adelaide Byrd and Canelo Alvarez team up against the laws of physics in HIGH DEF. We get up at 4am on a Thursday to watch tiny, screaming Japanese men fight on the screens of our smartphones. We pay a half month’s rent to cover the shipping fees on that new Isaac Dogboe t-shirt just to make sure warlords don’t intercept it (Worth it! -ed.). That loyalty is more often than not rewarded with terrible scoring, missed calls, and uncompetitive fights. The SS Boxing isn’t quite sinking but it’s definitely sprung some major leaks. Let’s patch some of those holes. Let’s make some changes to the rule book and see where we end up.

The great Larry Merchant once famously said “Nothing will kill boxing and nothing can save it.” Until now. We can save it. You and me, buddy. You ready?

(Please note that I have zero hope or confidence that any of these will ever happen.

1. No More Sanctioning Bodies

This is the most obvious and important change that can be made. For anything else in this sport to evolve, abolishing the alphabet groups and establishing a formal commission has to happen first. Don’t get me wrong, I can see an argument for their existence. On one hand, they give lesser known fighters more leverage at the bargaining table and put a few extra bucks in their pocket. On the other hand, they’re exclusively responsible for ruining the entire sport of boxing so, you know, scales of justice and all that. With the eradication of all sanctioning bodies we wave bye-bye to criminally suspect rankings boards, egregious sanctioning fees, the proliferation of titles, and having multiple champions in the same fucking weight class. It’s all gone. All of it.

In its place is an international commission that governs the entire sport based on reason and merit. We appoint someone with integrity and a history of incorruptibility to oversee it. Someone like long time former Ring Magazine editor in chief and hall of famer Nigel Collins. Or Showtime analyst, boxing lifer and fellow hall of famer Steve Farhood. I’d be willing to throw Al Bernstein’s name into the hat too, but if there’s a special promotion on PornHub we could lose him for long stretches of time.So we appoint a commissioner and we implement a sane, rational rankings system like the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.

With a structure in place to ensure proper rankings, one champion per division, and minimize corrupting influences, the sky is the limit.

2. Overtime Rounds

Ties suck. In every sense of the word. Neck ties, family ties, Tye Fields. They’re all garbage. No one likes them, especially in competitive sports. So why do we put up with them?

Picture this: Oleksandr Usyk and Murat Gassiev beat the absolute dogshit out of each other for 12 rounds. There’s a knockdown each, Usyk loses a point mid-fight for rabbit punching but comes on hard in the championship rounds, enough to even earn a 10-8 in the 11th. Gassiev, having banked most of the early rounds barely finishes on his feet and Usyk is completely gassed from trying to get him out of there. The judges tally up the scores, hand them to the ring announcer and after letting the tension in the arena reach a nearly unbearable crescendo, he reveals a unanimous draw across all three cards. Everyone sobers up, loses their boner, and goes home aggressively unsatisfied.

Now picture this: The scorecards are read, a draw is announced, and the ring clears out as both fighters go back to their corner to put their mouthpieces back in for one more winner-take-all round. Both guys exhausted, bloody, and starting to swell, putting it all back on the line for all three minutes. Ninety seconds to determine who will be rewarded for the 12 grueling rounds that preceded it and the 10 weeks of agonizing training before that. Is anyone in that arena sitting down when the bell for the 13th round rings?

Draws are bullshit. Overtime rounds, baby. We need this.

3. Same Day Weigh-Ins

Of all the entries on this list this one has the best chance of actual being implemented. There’s an obvious strategical purpose to having day before weigh-ins in that after killing themselves for the previous month to make weight you don’t want fighters going into the ring depleted. Given how modern fighters rehydrate in the ensuing 24 hours however, the door is wide open for size discrepancies to have disastrous consequences. The most common example is Arturo Gatti’s two round destruction of Joey Gamache back in 2000 that ended Gamache’s career and left him with permanent brain damage. That’s obviously an extreme example but Gatti only outweighed Gamache by 15 pounds on fight night and we see gaps wider than that all the time these days. How often do we see a guy weigh in as a middleweight and enter the ring looking like Chris Arreola on the last day of a Subtember?

The solution seems quite simple. The fighters weigh in on the morning of the fight with enough time to properly rehydrate but not gorge themselves into a new weight class. It’s a no brainer.

4. Zero Sum Purses

Ok, just hear me out here. Mismatches blow. They’re boring and a massive waste of everyone’s time. The problem is, how do you keep two guys from accepting a paycheck even if the outcome is almost assuredly predetermined? The answer: Zero sum purses. Winner take all.

Under boxing’s current system, there’s an unwritten rule that a fighter kinda, sorta, ok not really, has to be ranked in the top 15 to fight for a title. If he’s not, you just slip the right person an eight ball of coke and voila – he’s a top 15 guy. Hell, toss a handjob in there and you can get him in the top five. Under our new system though (See #1) we have an incorruptible rankings board so bribes and hush money are a thing of the past.

Here’s how it works now: Say your fighter is the champion of his division and you want him to take an easy fight or a tune up. Fine, that’s allowed. Except if he chooses to fight someone outside of the top ten his entire purse is on the line if he loses. Same goes for the challenger. There’s the obvious hiccup of paying trainers, managers, promoters and the like so a small allotment will have to be doled out to cover those fees but ultimately the losing fighter get ZERO DOLLARS. How many champions are willing to risk their title and their purse just to take an easy, bullshit fight?

Yes, the challenger will get screwed more often than not but on the occasions when he doesn’t that’s a massive underdog story and a catapult to success. It’s the ultimate “put your money where your mouth is” scenario instead of the usual “put your mouth where the money is” posturing of talking up shitty mismatches.

5. Start Fights Earlier

This really needs no further explanation. Start the main even at 8pm eastern standard time. People have shit to do and I promise you they’ll thank you for it. There’s no excuse for entering the ring on a Saturday and leaving it on a Sunday. Do away with all the pageantry of the national anthems and fighter instructions and just get to it. Writers can make their deadlines, parents can rest up for the next day of unrelenting hell that awaits them and alcoholics still have time to go out and drink. Everybody wins. I know HBO and Showtime will bitch because they premiere new movies at 7pm on Saturdays but Transformers: Revenge of the Mechanical Fart Moth will just have to wait until 10pm. Like we do now. Start the fucking fights earlier.

6. Five Judges

Don’t ask me how I know this, but most competitive dance-based sports use a five judge system where the two widest scorecards are dropped and the middle three are used as official scores. Guess what? Boxing should do this. It will have no fundamental effect on how fights are scored but it will safeguard against incompetence and corruption.

Let’s say a fight is very obviously close. It sorta leans toward fighter A but you could very rationally make a case for fighter B. The scorecards are tallied and read. Two judges have it 115-113 for fighter A, the next has it 116-112 for fighter B, a fourth one has it 117-11 for fighter A and the fifth one has it 119-109 for fighter B. The fourth and fifth judges can now fuck off and take their scorecards with them. The official nod is a split decision victory for fighter A and there’s few to no complaints.

Now imagine if either of the fourth or fifth judges was assigned to that fight in our current three judge system? You’d have a scoring controversy, pissed off fans and dozens of “another black eye for boxing” articles up by sunrise. All because someone’s cataract acted up or they had money on the fight or they were just plain fucking dumb. The five judge system isn’t perfect but it’s another layer of insulation against stupidity and misconduct and boxing needs as many of those as it can get.

7. Ref Cuts the Tape

This is just me picking nits now but this is a ridiculous rule. The tape on a fighter’s glove comes loose and thrashes around like an angry tapeworm for half a round until the ref finally calls time and walks him over to his corner. The corner then proceeds to fumble around at half speed like Michael J Fox attempting to pour a glass of red wine while wearing a white tux as the ref attempts to hurry him along with all the urgency of an overweight convict climbing the steps to the gallows. Meanwhile, the action has stopped, both fighters are given a lengthy rest and the fighter with the faulty tape is receiving a list of instructions from his corner rivaling Volume 1 of Remembrance of Things Past and for what? Because his corner doesn’t understand how adhesives work. This is, how do you say it, ah yes, dumb.

Give the ref a small roll of tape and little pair of scissors to keep in his fanny pack. Also, he gets a fanny pack now too. If a fighter’s tape comes loose, the refs waits for a break in the action, calls a brief timeout, re-tapes the glove and the action starts up again in the time it would take to give a warning for low blows. This isn’t brain surgery.

I know some will say that having a ref re-tape a glove instead of a trained cornerman could give the opposing fighter a strategic advantage but if your chances of winning a fight are remotely affected by the placement of tape on your opponent’s glove then you probably didn’t stand a chance to begin with.

Also, duct tape should be used in all fights in place of athletic tape but this is by far the most anyone has ever talked about tape in an article that’s not about kidnapping strategies so we’re just going to let that go for today.

8. No Testing for Recreational Drugs

Overturning a decision because a fighter tested positive for recreational – that is non-performance enhancing – drugs is archaic and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how drugs work. Yes, marijuana will enhance pain tolerance but also drastically slows reaction time and decision making. Cocaine will give you short energy bursts but also severely increase body temperature and constrict blood vessels while possibly leaving the user susceptible to wearing fishnets and partying with hookers who will ultimately blackmail them. And I truly believe that, much like fellating yourself, if you can box professionally while on heroin you absolutely should be allowed to.

The point is, depending on the amount you use, both marijuana and cocaine can be detected in your blood or urine for up to three weeks after use. Boxing is a hard sport. If a fighter wants to take the edge off by smoking a bowl or doing a couple lines 20 days before a fight, what the hell do we care?

9. No Training While Suspended

This comes with the obvious caveat that I have no idea how you would enforce it but nevertheless, if a fighter is suspended by the commission for PED use he is not allowed to train during that time period. Oh what’s that? Not training means you won’t be in shape and will put your future ability to earn money at risk? That’s what it’s supposed to do, dummy. You’re being punished. A boxer’s prime is short and if people are really serious about cleaning up the sport then the punishments dished out should reflect it.

Most high level fighters take six months off between fights anyway so a suspension isn’t really a huge deal. The dedicated ones will stay in shape during that time however and when the next training camp rolls around it’s just shedding weight and tightening screws. If there was a way to ensure that a suspended fighter caught anywhere near a gym during the time of his suspension would have a year added to it, they may think twice about scarfing down that Mexican clenbuterol burger next time.

10. Video Replay for Cuts and Fouls

Boxing is a fast, nuanced sport and referees truly have a thankless job. Realistically, if a fight is perfectly refereed you shouldn’t notice the ref at all. If he happens to miss a call however, he (or she I suppose, #MeToo) can be blamed at the blink of an eye for ruining a fight. I guess that’s the price that has to be paid for adjudicating a contest between fighters literally risking their lives. So how about this? Let’s split the difference and give everyone a break. Let’s take the most commonly flubbed calls and implement a system to protect the referees’ reputations against forgivable mistakes and also reward the fighters with accurate calls. Let’s use video replay to determine the cause of cuts and the accuracy of slips and foul calls.

Now, I’m not saying stop the fight and roll back the tape every time a guy gets tapped on the balls but we’ve all seen how quickly the network production crews can find and pinpoint a replay angle that shows the exact nature of a controversial ruling. If a cut is ruled to be from a headbutt and there’s an angle that clearly shows it to be from a punch, that replay can be shown to the ref between rounds and he can amend his call. Same goes for knockdowns that are ruled slips and vice versa as well as knockdowns that are caused by low blows.

There’s obviously a massive a grey area here and someone smarter than me will have to hammer out the protocols but fighters deserve to have calls that affect the outcome of the fight properly ruled. No referee wants their judgment questioned, but I’m sure they all have calls that they’d like to have back. Video replay helps move the goalposts closer in everyone’s favor.

Post Mortem

Hit me up on twitter @ratcatchermpls and let me know any other rule changes you would make.

Like most people I don’t know thing one about Tyson Fury’s June 9 comeback opponent Sefer Seferi (23-1, 21 KO) other than the records of the opponents on his boxrec page look like long distance phone numbers but let’s hope Fury doesn’t get taken by surprise. He’s an absolute screwball, but the heavyweight division is a much more interesting place with him in it.

That Vasyl Lomachenko did what he did to Jorge Linares a few weeks back on May 12 was impressive enough. To find out he did it with a torn labrum and basically one handed is downright terrifying. What a fighter.

I have no idea what the long term viability of an endeavor like the ESPN+ app is but for the time being, it’s a lot of decent content for the cost of a pack of smokes. I’m not a huge fan of putting more boxing behind a paywall but I’m willing to let it prove that it’s not worth it before I cancel my subscription.

Not a ton of good records have come out in the past month so go back listen to some god damn 7 Seconds, will ya?! I love you all so much and I want you to be happy. In our culture it is not customary for you to say something nice about me.

]]>http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/lets-fix-boxing-shall-we.html/feed02018-06-04T08:53:11+00:002018-06-04T08:54:22+00:00Smith1Vasyl Lomachenko Gets Tested By Jorge Linares, Scores Big KOhttp://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/vasyl-lomachenko-gets-tested-by-jorge-linares-scores-big-ko.html
http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/2018-articles/vasyl-lomachenko-gets-tested-by-jorge-linares-scores-big-ko.html#respondSun, 13 May 2018 02:33:54 +0000http://thecomeback.com/queensberryrules/?p=11550For a while early, and then right in the middle, it looked like Vasyl Lomachenko’s otherworldly skill might not be enough to guarantee a victory against the bigger, faster and himself-pretty-skilled Jorge Linares. But Saturday on ESPN, Lomachenko overcame a rare knockdown to himself score a knockout in the 10th round. This might be Lomachenko’s […]

]]>For a while early, and then right in the middle, it looked like Vasyl Lomachenko’s otherworldly skill might not be enough to guarantee a victory against the bigger, faster and himself-pretty-skilled Jorge Linares. But Saturday on ESPN, Lomachenko overcame a rare knockdown to himself score a knockout in the 10th round.

This might be Lomachenko’s most impressive victory. Guillermo Rigondeaux might have been his best opponent, but Rigo was moving up in weight, while this time it was Loma who was moving up to lightweight. It’s nearly impossible to argue against Lomachenko as the best fighter in the game right now.

To hear the ESPN team call it — the house fighter was Loma, fighting for Top Rank on “Top Rank on ESPN” — Linares wasn’t even in the ring (this writer had him in a year-end pound-for-pound top 10). But the first couple rounds, with little to distinguish between either man, might have justifiably been scored for Linares. Loma started to get into a rhythm, and it looked like he could be gearing up to run away with it.

Everyone got a wakeup call in the 6th, when Linares scored a counter right-hand knockdown. Loma wasn’t badly hurt, but he was hurt legitimately, and spent the rest of the round and part of the next recovering and dialing down the aggression, apparently growing more cautious. The intervening rounds before the final one were relatively close.

Loma scored a sneaky, perfect left hand to the body in that 10th and final round. Linares looked like he might make it up. Alas, once he was to his feet, he was in no condition to continue. The judges had it a draw coming into the ultimate round, a bit too close but a demonstration that the fight was closer than the near wipeout ESPN was calling.

It wasn’t exactly a stereotypical action-packed Fight of the Year, yet Lomachenko vs Linares was well-fought, dramatic and had a big finish. In a diluted era of “title belts,” Loma’s achievement of getting three divisional titles faster than anyone isn’t the thing to focus on. It’s that he has beaten more quality opponents quicker than anyone else ever has. Seriously, the guy has 12 fights as a pro, after Saturday. The 12th showed us he’s more than simply hyper-skilled: He’s got heart, too. In showing a smidge of vulnerability, he proved he’s more amazing than we knew.